Harry Styles Strikes Back At Paparazzi With Court Order

The One Direction singer’s attorney appeared in London’s high court on Monday, Dec. 9, in an effort to prevent shutterbugs from getting too close to the singer. “This is not a privacy injunction. Mr. Styles is not trying to prevent fans approaching him in the street and taking photos,” the boy bander’s lawyer, David Sherborne, told the court. “He remains happy to do that, as he always has. Rather, it is the method or tactics which have been used by a certain type of photographer.”

Four paparazzi are in the process of being identified.

Justice Nicola Davies ruled in favor of Styles and ordered the unnamed photographers to stop pursuing the “Story of My Life” singer by car or motorcycle. Per The Guardian, they are also forbidden from placing him under surveillance or loitering within 50 meters of his home to monitor his movements.

Davies extended the order until Jan. 13, when a further hearing will decide how the case should proceed.

In November, 1D’s Niall Horan tweeted that he had been “dragged to the floor by some idiot with a camera” at Los Angeles’ LAX airport, adding: “I hate the paps!”

He later told E! News, “We came out of this exit and there was, like, loads of paps—like 50, 60 paps—and the fans were behind them, so obviously we wanted to stop and see the fans because we haven’t been to L.A. for a while.”

The paparazzi and the band’s fans collided, causing chaos in the terminal.

“They just started getting really aggressive,” Horan continued. “They started pushing each other, which meant we got pushed. Then someone pushed me and dragged me to the floor.”

Horan, 20, said the band can typically dodge the paparazzi unless their whereabouts are well known. “We kind of like to keep ourselves to ourselves,” he explained.